A Tale of Two Visits! – by Saad Mansoor
Badalta hai rung aasmaan kaisay kaisay, is a famous verse of Aatish’s couplet that has become a cliche in Urdu political writings. Yet I found out today that cliches are cliches for a reason.
The full couplet goes as follows,
zameen-e-chamn gul khilati hai kia kia,
badalta hai rang aasmaan kaise kaise!
A rough translation would be
Of kinds, flowers in the gardens bloom Of kinds, the sky changes colors
In response to this is presented another couplet by Amir Minai which is likewise now a cliche,
hoay naam war be-nishaan kaise kaise,
zameen kha gayee aasmaan kaise kaise
A rough translation would be,
Became fabled, the unknown, unnamed, The earth swallowed the skies so famed.
The couplets are timeless as we witnessed recently once again. The unknown and unnamed have gained thrones, became kings and then suffered humiliation at the behest of those who so eagerly cheered their coronation. The most recent example of this was the recent visit by the Honourable Chief Justice of Pakistan Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry to Quetta.
This was not his first visit, he had visited Quetta before, Quetta being his 
hometown. He had also visited Quetta about two years back on 31st March 2008. He was deposed at the time and came on the invitation of Balochistan Bar Association. Upon arrival he was welcomed by thousands of citizens, lawyers and women and children who had their fathers, brothers and sons taken away by the intelligence agencies. The Chief Justice was their only hope, he was their hero and had fought and lost his office for their cause the missing persons case. He had stood up against the establishment and summoned the all powerful representatives of Military Intelligence and ISI to the Supreme Court. The slogan of ‘Chief tere jaN nisar, beshumar beshumar’ echoed the main Quetta road as his caravan took hours to reach the Balochistan High Court. But this was two years ago!
On 12th June 2010, more than two years after his previous visit and more than one year after his reinstatement he visited his hometown again. This time there were no crowds, no hoards of lawyers jumping over each other to shake his hand but I guess that is understandable. You cannot expect a sitting Chief Justice to be acting like a political leader, indeed his office is above politics. The only place he can make an address is the bar associations. The Chief Justice was joined in by the Chief Justices of all four provinces. The electronic media dutifully aired his speech at the convention. What they did not air was the pictures of the audience. Why?
Because the audience was limited. A news which the media at large conveniently forgot to relay is the strike call by Balochistan Bar Association to protest his visit to the city. The sparsely populated convention venue, lack of attendance by lawyers and lack of enthusiasm was not a mere coincidence. It was a protest, a black day was the order of the day!
The same lawyers who were boycotting courts for his reinstatement are doing so to protest his arrival in the city. They are angered at his lack of interest in the missing persons case, the courts comments that the evidence against intelligence forces will not be examined and his indifference to the plight of people of Balochistan. This is not what they fought for. They had no corporate clients like the lawyers of Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad with hefty fees to pay for their living but they did not appear in front of courts which they deemed unconstitutional. They did not violate the directives of their leaders of Lawyers’ Movement at the cost of personal suffering to themselves and their families. All for what?! They ask themselves today as the man who sits in the white marble mausoleum of justice has abandoned them.
The Chief Justice in his visit hoped that the lawyers community of Pakistan and Balochistan stood once for the rule of law and Constitutionalism and he expected them to do it again if need be. We salute the lawyers of Balochistan Bar Association, who have today made it clear that they will stand for rule of law, no matter the who leads the opposing forces. So Honourable sir, be careful what you wish for, lest it come true!
While watching Fifa WC Match between England and USA, am bit irritated with the goal conceded by England because of a defensive blunder by the goalkeeper Green. While cursing him for his blunder and incompetent goalkeeping, I put a glance on the Pakistani Advertisement channels with news strip below and news bulletin in the breaks, here another show of incompetence was running,
Chairman of the unannounced Justice Party of Pakistan CJ Chauhdry was addressing at an event where Chief justices from all the provinces were present and have already addressed the participants. Everyone from the lot is a gem of its now kind. The news strips were showing what they have said in their speeches. CJ Balochistan called CJ Chauhdry “son of Balochistan”. CJ K-Pakhtunkha was advising the lawyers to participate in politics showing their ambitions.
Here comes the Chairman…
CJ Chauhdry has started with the same much repeated and over hyped “Matlaa” of Lawyers movement, their sacrifices for bringing
He started with the same tall claims of Lawyers struggle for democracy etc…
Nothing new offered in the whole speech which was running live on all the advertisement filled news channels uninterruptedly, but not amazingly.
The notable thing was the inability of CJ Chauhdry to read from the written Urdu speech, which CJ never have read or written in his life and was evident from his pronunciation of even the most simple word as “mulk” which he repeatedly was pronouncing as “Mulakk” like illiterate Punjabi peoples. While using the word “Lamha E Fikria” he pronounced it “Fikra E Lamhia” though was corrected by the channels with the exact word.
The whole speech was revealing his incompetency regarding addresses.
The whole episode reminds me of late Khalid Hasan article on CJ Chauhdry visit to America and his speeches at various events his English skills etc with the ending note “yeh ham Kahan se kahan agay hein”
A get-CJ Iftikhar operation on the cards? Wednesday, June 16, 2010 Kaira rejects any move, political leaders show lack of knowledge By Ansar Abbasi http://www.thenews.com.pk/top_story_detail.asp?Id=29502
ISLAMABAD: The Presidency has launched a covert operation to target Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry with clear signs that the massive government funds being doled out to lawyers and the highly dubious appointment of an ordinary lawyer as federal law secretary are part of this larger agenda, it is learnt.
Information Minister Qamar Zaman Kaira, however, categorically denied this and termed it baseless and speculative, insisting that publication of such a story without concrete proofs would lead to confusion and misunderstandings.
Sources confided to The News that the Presidency is desperate to effectively target the chief justice and possibly remove him for which the groundwork has already started and things are expected to mature after the Supreme Court hands down its decision on the 18th Amendment.
Feeling insecure from a fiercely independent judiciary because of their tainted past, President Asif Ali Zardari and a group of his advisers, including a few federal ministers, all of whom have their personal grudge against the judiciary, have chalked out this strategy to muster much-required support of political and legal fraternity to target the top judge. Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani is also said to be on-board.
Sure to win the support of all its coalition partners, including the ANP, the MQM and the JUI-F, all of them not too happy with the independent judiciary because of its decisions affecting them and their leaders, the PPP is also confident to take the PML-N on-board.
After reading and hearing the anti-judiciary sentiments of certain PML-N leaders, the sources said, the Presidency is desirous to see the apex court striking down any part of the 18th Amendment so that the PML-N’s support could also be won to target Justice Iftikhar-led superior judiciary.
Presidency spokesman Farhatullah Babar was simply inaccessible as he neither attended this correspondent’s phone calls nor responded to the SMS message conveying the question on the issue.
Information Minister Qamaruzzaman Kaira, however, when approached categorically denied this and asked how the PPP government, which gave its blood during the judicial movement and restored the judges through an executive order, could even think of targeting any of the judges.
“Neither there is any such thinking nor it will happen,” he said, adding that the PPP, the government or the Presidency have nothing against any judge. The information minister said the government respects the judges and the courts and is obeying their orders and directions. He said there is no issue of President Asif Ali Zardari as the 18th Amendment was passed by parliament.
PML-N spokesman Ahsan Iqbal, however, emphatically said that his party, which has paid a heavy price for the restoration of the independent judiciary, would not let any attempt aimed at attacking it succeed.
Denying that any of the PML-N leaders was approached even informally by the government for supporting the get-Justice Iftikhar operation, Ahsan Iqbal apprehended that the government was trying to deflect the NRO issue by preparing grounds for a bigger controversy, or a battle between the judiciary and parliament.
He said the PML-N owns the 18th Amendment and defends it too but would give its response on the court decision only after it is be handed down and reviewed by the party. The sources, however, said some of the PML-N leaders have even assured the PPP men to stand with parliament in case of the striking down of any of the constitutional amendments. In such a situation, the government plans to move a resolution in parliament in favour of the 18th Amendment and against the apex court.
Similar resolutions, the sources said, are expected to be moved and adopted in the provincial assemblies, including the Punjab, provided the PML-N gets on-board. The induction of Babar Awan’s junior as law secretary is also part of the impending get-Justice Iftikhar operation. The sources said Zardari’s confidants are also contemplating filing a formal reference before the Supreme Judicial Council against the chief justice.
About the grounds of such a reference, nothing could be ascertained by this correspondent except that the President of the Supreme Court Bar Association, Qazi Anwar, revealed to The News something is said to have already been received by President Zardari against the chief justice.
Qazi said he has recently hinted at a possible attack on the superior judiciary following the prime minister’s repeated statements that the judges were restored through his executive order, which could be withdrawn, and that the restoration was not the consequence of the long march.
“These statements are not meaningless,” he said but resolved that the lawyers’ fraternity and the people of Pakistan would not let the government attack the independent judiciary.
Only recently Dr Abdul Basit, the then counsel of the Federation representing in the 18th Amendment case, had talked of moving a reference against the chief justice. Basit, however, was removed from the panel because he had thrice changed his statements about the authority, who had directed him to object to the inclusion of the chief justice in the 17-member bench hearing the case.
He initially named the president, then talked of Salman Farooqi and later said that the strategy was decided in the law minister’s office.
Meanwhile, the sources said the Presidency also wants the PML-N to realise that with the kind of the judiciary that exists in Pakistan right now, no government could function freely. The PML-N, it is said, will also be made to realise that its leadership too has pending corruption cases in the superior judiciary, which might create problems for them too.
The PPP is, however, confident of winning the support of its coalition partners. The MQM, which has not shown any sign of defiance against the judiciary, is expected to join the government’s move. Senior MQM leader Farooq Sattar, when approached told The News that no one from the government or Presidency has contacted his party for any such move against the chief justice.
Sattar said if the government contacts the MQM in this respect in the future, the party would take the issue to its Rabita Committee and would take a decision accordingly keeping in view the overall situation. The MQM though never supported the NRO whether inside parliament or before the apex court, its annulment led to opening up of almost 8,000 criminal cases against the MQM leaders and workers. Of late, the Supreme Court had sought from the provincial authorities, including the Sindh government, an update about such cases.
ANP spokesman Zahid Khan told The News that neither he was aware of any such development nor his party leadership was contacted by the government or the Presidency with such a proposal.
Answering a question as to what would be the stance of the ANP if the government sought its support for such a move, he said he couldn’t respond to hypothetical questions.
JUI-F spokesman Maulana Ajmad when contacted said he is not aware of any such move and is hearing it from The News for the first time. He, however, committed to get back to The News on the issue after talking to his party’s top leadership.
Meanwhile, the government has also pinned high hopes on Asma Jehangir, who is contesting for the office of the president SC Bar Association. Though she is an independent candidate and highly respected, the government is supporting her with great hopes.